Adventures of a wife, mom, personal trainer, and certified yoga teacher, with a passion for living a healthy, natural, balanced, and transparent life without borders. All things life, love, food, fitness, marriage, parenthood, and lots of YOGA!<3

Month: June 2014

So, it is the end of week 1 heavy weight training with the hubster and YEEEEESSSHHH! I’m toast! If you follow me on Instagram you’ll see that I mentioned I haven’t trained this extensively with weights since we were engaged! But, boy, do I love it! I love watching the body tear down and build and repair and take shape and look healthier! It’s fascinating to me!

Below is a little recap of what our week looked like. I am getting my bearings before I really start sharing some WOD’s with you, but this will give you an idea!

Monday

Chest and Triceps

3×10 (Lower weight/high rep)

Abs

Tuesday

Back and Biceps

3×10 (Lower weight/high rep)

Wednesday

Shoulders

3×10 (Lower weight/high rep)

Abs

Thursday

Legs

3×10 (Lower weight/ high rep)

Friday

HIIT 30 min

Saturday

Yoga

Week one and two is 3 sets of 10. Week three and four we are increasing weight and lowering reps (i.e. 5 sets of 6)

The goal is that by week 5 when we go back to 3 sets of 10 we should be able to keep the weight we were doing in 5 sets of 6. This is one form of pyramid strength training. We incorporate toning as well as just strength builders. Once I get my strength up some more, I will probably lower my weight slightly and increase my reps, but do the same excercises as my husband. For women that is more toning/sculpting and also fat burning. I think I will mix it up because I want strength as well so I really want to focus in both areas.

We hit the beach in a little less than 4 weeks and by that time I will be 8.5 months postpartum. I will be posting progress every week just to see how much I change in the coming weeks.

Here’s Week 1

I’m still maintaining a VERY lean, clean, and green diet so that I can get the most out of all the effort I’m putting in. It takes at leasttwo weeks to get really set into a routine. If you are trying to cut out the junk and start cleaning your eating, be patient with yourself, you will get there. If you need to remodel a lot in the way of your eating, you are best to start with one thing you can wean from instead of cut it all out cold turkey–which may lead to binging and discouragement. AKA: vicious cycle.

I am in the process of putting together my grocery list of sorts. I have been asked if I count calories, do I food journal, also can I post what I eat on a daily basis. I figured the best way to answer that would be to put multiple option of the many foods that I eat to not only give you a look into it, but to also give people options. When it comes to the food we eat, that seems to be a hard place for a lot of people. It’s one of the areas that people just have a hard time knowing what goes in the way of eating. While it can be overwhelming, I hope to assure you it’s not as hard as you think to eat well. Be on the lookout. The summer is full of an upcoming vacation and busy busy busy so I will try to get it out as quickly as I possibly can because I know summer means swimsuits and you’ll want healthy snacks and meals to make you feel better in them!

It’s National Iced Tea Day! As if I needed more of a reason to drink tea! 🙂

I love Iced Tea, especially in the summer. There are so many benefits to drinking tea (hot or cold). When I was pregnant, I was trying to experiment with ways to drink tea and not get the LOADS of sugar that most places put in it, and I was also trying to make sure I wasn’t drinking too much caffeine, and not every restaurant was guaranteed to have decaf tea. So I began trying out new things at home. Brewing decaf teas and buying passion fruit teas and other cool flavored teas to get some variety. Then, because I like it sweet, I would add just a bit of organic/raw sugar to the batch, a fresh lemon, and mmmmmmm–refreshing and much better for you, I’ll say!

For today’s workout I did a multiple movement, full body toning with some HIIT mixed in. This will target every area of the body and also get that heart rate up as well.

You will need:

-5lb. dumbbells

-stopwatch

*Warm-up*

-30 seconds jog in place (alternate high knees and kicking heels back to touch booty)

-1 minute jumping jacks

-1 minute downward dog to plank

-1 minute jumping jacks

-30 seconds push-ups

-1 minute alternating lunges

Total Body

*8 reps of each set*

-Bicep curl & Squat

-Just bicep curl

-Just squat

-Pulse both bicep curl and squat

(NOTE: When I say “pulse” that doesn’t mean quick, it means small range of motion. Small fine toning movement)

-Lunge R leg w/shoulder press

-just lunge

-just shoulder press

-pulse both

Repeat set on L leg

-Overhead Tricep Extension with Side leg lifts

-just L leg lift

-just triceps

-puls both

Repeat set on R leg

-Double arm row w/leg lifts to the back.

(One leg at a time. Balance on other leg, knee slightly bent. Try not to touch lifting leg to the ground.)

-just L leg lifts to the back (squeeze booty)

-just row

-pulse both

Repeat on R leg

-Booty Bridge and Chest Fly

-just Bridge

-just fly

-pulse both

Repeat 2x’s

-Plie squats and upright rows

-just rows

-just squats

Repeat 2x’s

Cardio/HIIT section

Mountain Climbers (30 secs)

Sumo squats touch the floor reach up and calf raise (quick 30 secs)

Burpees (30 secs)

Lateral Ski jumps (jump and hold from one leg to the other-30 secs)

minimal to no rest in between. try for 2 times through

Abs:

10-12 reps each

-On your back, legs overhead, straddle. One weight crunch through the center. Legs come together for some inner thigh work.

-Russian twists side to side. Bring legs off the ground and hold foor more advanced (Boat)

-Over/unders. Sitting up but relclined slightly, abs engaged, knees slightly bent. Lift on leg up of the ground at a time and move one weight under and then over the other when you switch legs. Repeat in a figure 8 like motion.

I recently took a silly quiz on Facebook, you know the ones I’m talking about:

-What’s your superhero name?

-What’s your emotional IQ?

Yeah, you know the ones…

Well, I can’t remember what female celebrity I was trying to figure out I was most like, but one of the questions on the quiz made me pause. I even clicked my answer, moved to the next and couldn’t get it out of my mind. You see, when I take quiz’s like that, I try not to “help” predict my answer. I try to go with my initial gut reaction. (i.e. If you could choose between skydiving over the ocean and ziplining through the forest which would you prefer?) I would just immediately click the one that jumped at me first. So, back to “the answer”. The question that I haven’t been able to shake for about a week now was, “If you could have more of anything in your life, what would it be?” They had about 4 choices: Joy, Harmony, Peace, and Love. Immediately, all I was feeling was JOY. “Joy? Why Joy?” I asked myself. “I’m really happy with my life.” I began to second guess. Without pause, I heard the Lord say, “Happiness and Joy are two different things. They go together as part of a whole, but they are two different things…”

Here I am a week later and what do I have to say today? Well, I’ve not been able to stop mulling over this one truth: Happiness and Joy are two different things. It’s like a seed was planted that day and a week later, I’m realizing how much I have mistaken being happy for having true Joy. Unspeakable Joy! The kind of Joy that becomes part of your identity, just like your name. So what is Joy? Merriam-Webster defines it as “A source or cause for great happiness; a source or cause of delight”. To me what was a little sad, however, was that it was mixed in with things like this : ” the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of possessing what one desires.” First lesson this taught me? You won’t find what true Joy is in Merriam-Websters dictionary.

I began to see that the world has a glimpse of what Joy means. But unfortunately, the world hasn’t fully come to understand true Joy. Hence, definition number two that followed. Well, what does my Heavenly Father have to say about Joy?

We see in Galations 5:22 that the fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. We also see in Nehemiah 8:10, “The JOY of the Lord is our strength.” Ok, I began to ask myself, “Why strength?” Why isn’t it ,”The Joy of the Lord is our peace?” Or, “The Joy of the Lord is our Love?” Because, here is the journey He is taking me on:

Every good and perfect gift comes from him. He doesn’t just HAVE every good and perfect gift, He IS every good and perfect gift. It is His identity and when I stepped into his eternal family and asked him to live inside me….HA there it is! Joy isn’t just happiness but it is the root from which happiness leaves sprout. Joy is part of who I am so much, that even in moments throughout my life where there will be sadness, will be anger, will be struggle, that I have a knowing deep down that happiness still follows me. Where my heart and spirit are always pointed toward what is good. Joy isn’t just happiness. It’s happiness that stays and abides in me. It’s a pattern of living, not a moment I have.

What can Joy do for you?

Well let’s see what true, abiding, deep-seeded Joy does:

-It keeps you from being easily offended.

It’s hard to offend someone who lives from a place of Joy. Why? Because it’s their strength. They let negativity, resentment, and insults roll of them. They could care less. Half of the time I don’t even think they notice insults. Their Joy is so much a part of them that it would take a whole lot more than a negative arrow to strike them down. Let’s be honest, if anyone is affected, it’s the person shooting the arrows. Why? Because Joy is so contagious, for one. It gets on them and pierces them stronger than any arrows flying at them. And because of that, there’s a place where the person spewing negativity is projecting it because deep down, they want to feel the way you feel. They want to know how you can go through the every day and the moments that suck, and still find a reason to sing. Unfortunately, a lot of times, their first choice isn’t to band together with you. It’s pushing against you because of jealousy, fear, resentment, and just plain not understanding. The only thing they understand in that moment is that it hits a nerve. I will be the first to admit that there was a time in my life where super happy and joyful people annoyed the crap out of me. I would find myself cringing everytime someone flashed that chipper grin or someone I never saw have a bad day give or take 20% of the time. Seriously? They are delusional, I would think to myself. And while yes, there are people who hind behind a fake sense of happiness because they are afraid to open up and be real, I am not talking about those people. I am talking about the people who ARE realistic about moments in their life that bring pain, bring anger, bring sadness, aren’t afraid to show it, handle it, make steps to deal with, but that ALWAYS contain JOY! They know, deep down, that sorrow may last for the night, but JOY comes in the morning! It’s a pattern of living that strengthens and keeps you ready, willing, and able to deal with whatever comes your way.

-It produces so much fruit

When I looked at the choices–joy, harmony, peace, love–I thought to myself, if I lived from a place of Joy, than harmony, peace, and love has no choice BUT to follow. I can be content in whatever comes (peace), I am able to see myself and others the way God sees them no matter how they act (love), and in turn, I am able to find something good in every situation (harmony).

I can say that today, I am on a journey. From the minute I clicked that one silly quiz, a seed was planted and a tree is beginning to grow for maybe the first time in my life. I find myself more optimistic about things than I ever did, in spite of things around me that AREN’T changing. No longer will I just have “moments” of happiness, but I will have Joy. Unspeakable Joy. A Joy that I can access anytime through the Father because He is inside me! A Joy that will never run dry but will water the dry places in my life, even when I can’t feel or see it. a Joy that is just as much a part of me as my own name!

“I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart-WHERE? Down in my heart-WHERE? Down in my heart. I’ve got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart-WHERE? Down in my heart TO STAY!”

I do not weigh myself often. In most cases, I feel that it is counterproductive. More often than not, I believe it causes woman to obsess more over a number than overall health. Today it seems that society has made us think that we should all fit in one generalized (often low) number and that should be the “perfect” or ” ideal” weight. This is a dangerous, unhealthy, and very unrealistic system. Body fat percentage and weight are two VERY different things. You need a certain fat percentage WITHIN your weight to remain balance and healthy. Everyone’s ideal range differs depending on so many factors: height, bone mass, etc. This is something that can’t simply be determined by stepping on a scale.

Let me share with you a better picture:

Before my son, I maintained 138-140lbs. After him, I went almost 10lbs below that. Even though I was still in a healthy weight range, my body fat percentage was slightly above where it should be due to losing some muscle tone from pregnancy. In other words, the weight to body fat percentage ratio was just a little too close together. So, when I started weight training again and toning up more, I actually GAINED 3lbs in muscle but LOST body fat percentage. Cool huh? Make sense? Keep in mind that some may gain way more in just pure muscle and that is great! I weight trained until the very end of my pregnancy so I was able to hold on to a lot of muscle tone which is why I only gained back about 3lbs, because no matter how much weight training you do, there is still a percentage of muscle you will inevitably lose in pregnancy; and that’s actually needed and healthy. However, some people have more muscle to put on than others so don’t feel like if you gain 8lbs in muscle that it’s too much. The more muscle you have on your body the better. I am not saying you need to be a female body builder, I’m simply saying that muscle is so healthy. It burns fat for you even when your resting, it protects your joints, your spine, and it looks pretty. 🙂

The “ideal” weight for my height is 140lbs. However, because all of our bodies are different and unique, it’s better to go by “ideal weight range”. My ideal weight range for my height is anywhere between 126-154lbs. I am 131lbs. right now and actually, I am looking to put on more muscle and that means I could probably go up to about 135. And I am definitely ok with that. I have always felt my best between this current weight and 138.

If a 6ft tall female tried to fit into my weight, 1)it might be difficult due purely to bone mass, and 2) I would venture to say she might be underweight. If a 5ft tall female was my weight, she might be on the top of the range if not a little over. So see? As I said before, we can’t generalize one weight for everyone. It’s not healthy, it’s unrealistic, and often times it leaves woman feeling unworthy, discouraged, depressed, and they become/remain stuck. What if we celebrated GAINING the right way? Muscle of course…

When you gain healthy and accurate weight for YOU because of build, height, etc., than weight is not your enemy. If you have fat% to lose–lose that–and if you GAIN in muscle, then celebrate that because you are looking good and healthy! Our perspective shouldn’t be “small, skinny, tiny, little…..” it should be “healthy, fit, toned, sleek, curvy…”. Those sound better don’t they?